Ænglisce
Ænglisce is a modern rendition of English, had it not been so influenced by other languages -- mainly Latinate ones -- and had retained its synthetic morphology. Ænglisce is a hypothetical look to English's developement, had it been influenced by neighbouring germanic languages and neighbouring gaelic languages. Among Ænglisce's biggest influences, Icelandic, Welsh and French are the most prominent. Ænglisce is much more inflecting than modern day English. Nouns decline for three genders, two numbers, and four cases. Verbs are conjugated for person, mood, tense, aspect, and voice, though, like Icelandic, its biggest influence, Ænglisce only has two simple tenses, with many constructions to make up for the lack of tenses. Phonology Consonants Vowels Alphabet The Ænglisce alphabet has 27 letters. It must be noted, however, that, out of the 7 vowels in Ænglisce, 6 have accented counterparts which indicate quality, length, and may even be letter extentions themselves. Orthography θ Ablaut Ænglisce has a number of ablauts to which it uses for many grammatical purposes, such as declensions and conjugations. While ablaut in Ænglisce are pretty consistent, a great deal of irregularities have spawned from ablaut that break the general ablaut rules. Vowel Shift 1: í = é, o = á, á = œ, œ = ú, ú = æ, æ = ó, ó = a, a = y, y = u, u = ǽ, ǽ = í Vowel Shift 2: aɪ = ɑ:, øi = ei In further articles, each vowel shift will be referred to using brackets, therefore to indicate a first vowel shift occurs, <1> will be written. Grammar Nouns Nouns in Ænglisce decline to four cases and two numbers. All nouns are divided into three genders, which have separate declensions each. While the declensions for nouns are largely simple, many rely on vowel length for declension classification, which can easily change when affixing is used. Ænglisce, like Icelandic, goes through a system of umlauts (only two, however), and like Old English, goes through a system of syncope which tends to lose the syllable e'' in declensions; i.e. ''Énngel, Énnglas; Scovele, Scovlen, etc. Noun gender in Ænglisce is completely arbitrary. While the word for man, mæn, is masculine, the word for boy, boġe is feminine. Shown below is a table with declension endings, and an explanation as to which endings belong to which nouns. Masculine Nouns in the masculine are split up into two classes, both strong. All nouns in the masculine share the same endings in the dative and genitive. However, the plural nominative and accusative differs for some. Nouns ending in a short syllable get –í for the nominative plural, and -ǽ for the accusative plural. Nouns ending in a long syllable get –as for the nominative plural, and –u for the accusative plural. Feminine Like the masculine nouns, all nouns in the feminine share the same declensions except for the nominative and accusative plural. Unlike the masculine, however, feminine nouns depend on vowel quality rather than length. A noun ending in a front vowel will get –en in the nominative plural, and –u for the accusative plural. Nouns ending in back vowels get –er for the nominative plural, and –o for the accusative plural. Essentially, however, the accusative for the feminine is the same, and are different only orthographically. The distinction between the two is more prominent in affixes, where pronunciations change. Also note, feminine nouns typically end in silent –e in the nominative singular. Note, the –e is not taken into account when deciding which endings for the nominative and accusative should be used. Neuter Nouns in the neuter are split up into two classes – strong and weak: • Strong nouns don’t decline in the singular or plural of the nominative. In the accusative, -et is added for the accusative singular, and –em is for the plural. In the dative, -æ is added for the singular, and –um for the plural. in the genitive, vowels go through vowel shifts, though in the plural, apart from the vowel shift, an –e is added. • Weak nouns don’t decline in the nominative singular, plural, or the accusative singular. In the accusative plural, an –r is added if the noun ends in a vowel. If the noun ends in a consonant, it is not declined. In the dative, -æ/-um is added if the noun ends in a consonant, and –n if the nouns end in a vowel. In the genitive, weak nouns that end in a vowel, nouns add –s for both singular and plural. Nouns that end in consonants in the singular get –es, while in the plural, nouns ending in consonants still get –s. Articles Adjective Pronouns Category:Languages